Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering and the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research (SEER) will kick off the inaugural 2005 Media Boot Camp Series March 24 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Singleton Room at Roberts Hall.

The Media Boot Camp series is designed to help faculty and researchers better understand the needs of reporters covering science and the environment. This event is open to the public.

Chris Hendrickson, head of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon and faculty director of the Steinbrenner Institute, will be a panel moderator for discussions about how reporters and editors select and cover stories. Panel participants include Don Hopey, environmental reporter of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette; Jim Bruggers, environmental reporter of the Louisville Courier-Journal; Seth Borenstein, environmental correspondent for Knight-Ridder Newspapers; and W. Wayt Gibbs, senior writer for Scientific American.

"This is a great way to introduce some of our younger, outstanding faculty to the press, and to help them better disseminate our research to the public," said Hendrickson. "The series also gives the university campus community an opportunity to hear what the news media is covering and thinking about."

Deb Lange, executive director of the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research, said the Media Boot Camp Series is designed to capture the momentum created when more than 300 journalists visited campus during the 2004 National Conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists. The conference featured a variety of ongoing environmental research at Carnegie Mellon, including making our urban areas better places to live and work.

In addition to panel discussions, the Media Boot Camp Series also will feature select environmental research and projects sponsored by grants from SEER. Alumnus and trustee W. Lowell Steinbrenner and his wife, Jan, recently made a generous donation of $4 million to create the Steinbrenner Institute for Environmental Education and Research at Carnegie Mellon.

A second Media Boot Camp event, featuring more national environmental and science reporters, is scheduled for October 2005.